TOM TITUS -- Theater

The year may change, as may the century and the millennium, but local

theater keeps right on keeping on. The first theatrical event of the new

year already has arrived, since “The Scarlet Pimpernel” took up residence

at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Tuesday. More about that

show in detail in Saturday’s column.

The first locally germinated production of the new year comes from

South Coast Repertory, arriving Jan. 13, in the form of Edward Albee’s “A

Delicate Balance,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1967.

This seldom-produced play is a psychological drama about a complacent

couple whose calm is shattered by the arrival of their divorcing daughter

and another couple seeking refuge from a nameless terror.

Two weeks later, on Jan. 27, SCR will revive one of its earlier

off-the-wall comedies, John Guare’s “Bosoms and Neglect,” on the Second

Stage. Like “Balance,” this play also focuses on strange characters

caught in bizarre situations.

That particular weekend, Jan. 26-27, also will mark the opening of two

other local productions -- “The Winslow Boy” at the Newport Theater Arts

Center and “Lou Gehrig Did Not Die of Cancer” at Orange Coast College.

“The Winslow Boy” is a drama based on an actual incident by Sir

Terence Rattigan (“Separate Tables”). It centers on a teenage cadet’s

dismissal from an English school for stealing a five-shillng postal

order. The minor family matter escalates into a national incident that

finds the family suing the Crown in open court.

“Gehrig” has little to do with the New York Yankee legend apart from

the title. It’s a domestic drama to be produced by OCC’s Repertory

Theater Company in the college’s Studio Theater. That group also will

examine the dark works of England’s Harold Pinter starting Feb. 17.

One of the theater’s most popular staples, Joseph Kesselring’s

“Arsenic and Old Lace,” is due for a revival by Costa Mesa’s new Trilogy

Playhouse, starting its second season with a Feb. 9 opening. Although far

from unfamiliar in local theater circles, its certifiable wackiness

almost guarantees an enjoyable evening.

The Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse continues its “Season of the Musical”

with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor

Dreamcoat,” opening Feb. 23. Based on the biblical legend, it also

contains some pointedly modern touches.

Another musical, arriving that weekend at Vanguard University, will be

the second Costa Mesa production of “Little Shop of Horrors” this season.

Earlier, the Trilogy Playhouse sunk its teeth into this delicious black

comedy about a ravenous, man-eating plant.

This brings us to March and SCR’s production of Shakespeare’s “Much

Ado About Nothing,” opening March 3 on the Mainstage.

The new year certainly is bringing a rich and varied diet of comedy,

drama and music for theatergoers in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

* TOM TITUS writes about and reviews local theater for the Daily

Pilot. His stories appear Thursdays and Saturdays.